Everyone has white things in their wardrobe: shirts, underwear, bedding, towels... They are pleasing to the eye, perfectly complement the image and interior, but only as long as they are in the “dazzling white” status. After frequent washing, the fabric loses its original shade, grayness and yellowness appear. You go to the supermarket and look at the cost of branded bleaches, turning the thought in your head: “Isn’t it more profitable to buy a new thing?” Don't rush to conclusions! In our article we will reveal the secrets of experienced housewives on how to bleach white clothes at home, maintaining the quality of the fabric and without resorting to expensive powders. Whiten and save!
Method No. 1. Soda
This is the most affordable option that can be found in any housewife’s kitchen. Baking soda is a natural, cheap and safe product that can be safely used to whiten both adult and children's wardrobes.
How to bleach?
Dilute 5-6 tablespoons of soda in 5 liters of water (to enhance the whitening effect, you can add a couple of tablespoons of ammonia). Soak the items in this solution for several hours (2-3), then rinse thoroughly and wash in the traditional way. If there are yellow spots on things, then they should be boiled in a soda solution.
Tips and tricks
Not only store-bought products, but time-tested folk recipes help restore the white shine to grayed things. To get the maximum benefit from them, you must follow the tips and recommendations.
How to bleach faded white clothes
White items, when washed at the same time as brightly colored items, lose their snow-white appearance. It is necessary to take action as soon as possible to restore the original whiteness, before the paint eats deep into the fabric.
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After unsuccessful washing, you must use the following products:
- linen made from natural fabrics can be washed with laundry soap and chlorine-containing compounds;
- mustard is suitable for silk and wool;
- potassium permanganate is suitable for any things;
- ammonia returns the original color;
- soda along with hydrogen peroxide;
- citric or boric acid.
The items are kept in a solution with a suitable product for 2.5 hours, after which they are rinsed with warm, clean water.
How to restore the snow-white appearance of clothes?
An effective way to restore the whiteness of a T-shirt or jacket is to soak it in water with boric acid or potassium permanganate. The duration of the procedure is on average 2.5 hours.
Boiling and bleaching with Bleach, citric acid or ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and soda will help make things snow-white.
How to bleach gray, yellowed things?
You can remove grayness, as well as rid your favorite T-shirt or blouse of unpleasant yellowness in the following ways:
- soaking things in a composition based on boric acid, ammonia or hydrogen peroxide helps;
- A mixture of shavings of laundry soap, salt and soda, in which things are left for 10 hours, helps against yellowness.
It is important to choose a product according to the type of material so as not to spoil the clothes.
The collar of a shirt is often a problem area. Regular dish soap, a cotton swab soaked in vinegar, a mixture of table salt and ammonia, lemon juice, talc or hydrogen peroxide will help you deal with yellowness.
How to restore underwear
You can bleach your underwear with affordable products that you can find in your medicine cabinet or kitchen.
Citric acid, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide or regular whiteness will help restore the freshness and newness of your laundry. Vinegar or boric acid can help whiten lace underwear.
What and how to bleach children's clothes
Children's underwear requires special attention. Babies' skin is delicate and sensitive, so you should not use chemicals. It is better to use folk remedies that are characterized by a low level of allergenicity:
- baby soap;
- formulations with hydrogen peroxide;
- soda solution;
- ammonia;
- recipes with citric acid.
A suitable component is diluted in water and the laundry is soaked for 2.5 hours. If you follow all the rules, you will be able to quickly get rid of yellowness and gray tint without harming the child’s health.
Method No. 3. Ammonia + hydrogen peroxide
Are you surprised that hydrogen peroxide can not only treat wounds, and that ammonia is not just a means of reviving? Yes, housewives have been using these compositions to whiten clothes at home for many decades. Try it too!
How to bleach?
Mix 2 tablespoons of peroxide, 1 tablespoon of ammonia and 5 liters of water. Heat the solution to 70 degrees and soak things for about 3 hours. Rinse. Using this method, you can return the whiteness to lace underwear, tulle, curtains, a white shirt and any other items made of natural fabric.
Important!
If you decide to lighten clothes made of wool or silk, then reduce the temperature of the solution to 30 degrees. Otherwise the fabric will shrink!
Nuances when bleaching clothes made from different materials
Clothes made from different fabrics are bleached differently. Some materials are highly sensitive and are destroyed when exposed to certain components.
Synthetics
Clothes made of synthetic material are considered delicate. The washing rules will be as follows:
- clothes should not be boiled or soaked in compounds containing chlorine;
- The washing water is not too hot;
- after bleaching procedures, you should not wring out things;
- Drying things in the open sun should be avoided.
For synthetic clothing, compositions based on laundry soap, salt, soda or ammonia are considered safe.
Cotton and linen
To clean items made from cotton or linen, use baking soda or salt. It is permissible to add components during machine washing. The water should not be made too hot. Soaking in regular washing powder is effective.
Wool and silk
For wool and silk fabrics, it is recommended to prepare the following composition: dissolve 38 g of washing powder in 6 liters of water, 35 ml of hydrogen peroxide and soda, then add 125 g of salt. Soak clothes in a well-mixed mixture for 2.5 hours.
Method No. 10. Vinegar
If you add white (distilled) vinegar when washing clothes, you can achieve a good bleaching effect. It will help preserve and restore lost whiteness, soften the fabric, and prevent the appearance of pilling.
How to bleach?
Add ½ cup of vinegar to your laundry and set the washing machine to the daily cycle. This procedure will keep things white for a long time. And ¼ cup of vinegar will help remove stains. For complex stains, you can soak the clothes in warm water with a glass of vinegar overnight. In the morning, rinse and wash your clothes well!
Traditional bleaches
The easiest way to bleach an item is to use store-bought bleach, but before doing this, carefully study the item's label. There is information about whether the item can be bleached and what kind of bleach is recommended.
Bleach containing chlorine can only be used on cotton and linen items. They are practically not used for machine washing due to the aggressive characteristics of chlorine.
Such bleach will immediately ruin delicate fabrics, but even resistant materials after chlorine bleaching weaken and become more vulnerable to mechanical damage; in other words, they tear easily.
This bleach must be used carefully, in accordance with the instructions on the package; these products are not recommended for asthmatics and allergy sufferers - chlorine has a pungent odor.
Oxygen bleaches are used for washing in a washing machine, as well as for bleaching synthetic fabrics. Such products do not destroy the structure of the fibers.
Oxygen bleaches are safe for health and are suitable even for children's clothing. They not only whiten, but also help remove stains easily.
There are so-called optical brighteners that create an invisible coating on fabric, giving things a snow-white hue.
Method No. 12. How to bleach white clothes from traces of sweat?
Do you like to wear white things? Love to remove sweat stains too!
How to bleach?
- Fresh traces of sweat can be whitened using laundry soap. It is enough to thoroughly soap the problem areas and leave for 30 minutes, then wash the item.
- For thick fabric, use alcohol and kitchen salt. Pour salt onto the stain and apply alcohol, leaving the item in this state for about 20 minutes. Then wash.
- Veils with yellow sweat stains can be washed in the following solution: 200 ml of ammonia, 200 ml of denatured alcohol, 800 ml of water.
Important!
If you wash white items frequently, traces of sweat will not have time to eat into the structure of the fabric. This will help keep your white item white longer.
Mustard powder
Mustard powder does an excellent job of removing yellowness on items, for which you need to soak the laundry in its solution.
A sulfur-containing solution for soaking items before washing will help cope with yellowness after washing in water that has not been purified from rust:
- 100 g of mustard powder is diluted in 10 liters of hot water.
- The equipment is not suitable for clothing, which can be washed at temperatures up to 50 ºС.
Traditional methods are often used to remove stains from clothes:
- You can remove yellowness under the arms by diluting 2 aspirin tablets in a small amount of cold water and applying them to sweat marks before washing.
- You can get rid of fresh greasy stains by rubbing salt or ground chalk onto the stained fabric.
Pharmaceutical drug
For white laundry, you can use Aspirin. Acetylsalicylic acid helps remove gray from white woolen items and brightens natural fabrics.
You should not experiment with clothes made of delicate material; it is better to use other available means.
How to whiten with Aspirin:
- In 5 liters of water add 5 tablets of Acetylsalicylic acid, which are pre-crushed.
- Soak things for 8 hours, you can leave them overnight.
- Then rinse or machine wash.
You can wash things with Aspirin in an automatic washing machine. To do this, add 2-3 crushed tablets to the drum. You can mix them with powder, set the mode recommended for the selected type of laundry and begin the procedure.
Vegetable oil
An unusual method of whitening is the use of vegetable oil. How does this happen, since in most cases only greasy stains remain?
In fact, this method really helps to make things whiter.
Add grated laundry soap, ½ cup of washing powder and 2.5 tbsp to 5 liters of water. l. sunflower oil. Things are kept in the solution for 3 hours. Wash in the usual way, using powder and conditioner.
There will be no gray or greasy stains left on the bleached clothes.
Hydroperite
You can bleach your laundry with hydrogen peroxide or hydroperite tablets. This is the same thing, only in a different release form.
To bleach laundry with hydrogen peroxide, simply soak it in 5 liters of water with 200 ml of product. If you use hydroperite, you will need 10 tablets for the same amount of liquid.
Soaking in such solutions is carried out after washing things in a machine with powder. Then they carry out the procedure and simply rinse to remove any remaining product.
Folk remedies that are not as effective as store-bought ones. You'll have to put in a lot of effort.
But with such simple methods you can not only save on bleaches, but also give things their former whiteness.
Return of white flowers to faded textiles
Before bleaching a faded white item, you need to remember that the work must be done promptly. You can restore color if you begin resuscitation procedures immediately. The first remedy is repeated washing with the addition of a double portion of white laundry detergent fortified with soda ash (at a ratio of ten to one). If this method does not help or damage is discovered over time, there are more radical methods:
- cotton items can be boiled with peroxide and ammonia solution. For a ten-liter bucket of water you need a glass of hydrogen solution and 15 milliliters of ammonia, boiling time is half an hour;
- You can try to revive linen, denim, thick cotton with a special paste. The water-soda mixture is applied locally for about 20 minutes, then the textiles are sent for washing;
- Synthetics can be saved with soapy water. A crushed piece of laundry soap is mixed in half a liter of water, strengthened with two tablespoons of peroxide and five ammonia. The mixture is dissolved in a bucket of water, where faded synthetics are soaked for up to half an hour before washing.
Note! No prescription is guaranteed to work. The item may not be washed to its original whiteness, then the only way is to repaint the clothes a different color using ready-made dyes.
